Hey Y’all! Welcome to the blog! You clicked on this one because it’s all about increasing your faith. Just a fair warning - I keep it 100% real and truthful - which also means I like to keep things practical.
Growing up, whenever I faced a problem, preachers would say “give it to Jesus”or “God will take care of it” or “He is stronger than that.” And although that’s true, I also knew that “Faith without works is dead.'' And what no one ever clearly explained was the “works” part - the “how to” success. So today, that’s what I focus on! And today more specifically we are talking “how to” Faith or “working” our Faith.
Practical Steps to Increasing & Maintaining Your Faith:
Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. This primarily means reading the Bible but this could also mean listening to sermons, worship music, and testimonies/stories about where/how faith has worked for others. I encourage you to dive into the “Crazy Faith” series by Michael Todd - this helped me to see how ABLE God really is, in so many different ways.
Think of this step as the marketing step. Before we ever give a brand a chance, before we believe in their ability to deliver - the brand is marketed to us. When a brand is marketed well, through Ads and word-of-mouth, we know what the brand is all about and what to expect before we even try it out. Marketing makes us believe that we will receive all the greatness we’ve heard about.
I think about the first time I tried Chick-fil-a. I tried it (and now I love it) because I heard they had bomb customer service and fries! By simply hearing someone else talk about how good it was (and then experiencing it myself) an expectation was set.
Faith is an expectation and belief that God will do what He has always done - in is Word and through the testimonies of others. Our belief in “His brand” increases the more we hear about the goodness of His product. Expectations are the breeding ground for miracles.
Knowing increases Faith. You can’t have faith if you don’t know who you are putting your Faith in. If you don’t have a familiarity with the power & capabilities that He has, how can you expect anything from Him.
We have faith in chairs because we’ve sat in a ton of them and we know that they have held us previously. You must know what God has done previously and who He has been through the ages. And you can only know Him by hearing and hearing the Word of God and the testimonies of others.
Repetition allows us to know. Think about studying for a vocabulary test. In order to know how to spell a word, you had to study it over and over. You read it, wrote it, and used it throughout the week so that the word, spelling, and definition could stick. The same is true with the Word of God.
Repetition gives us a better knowing and once we know Him, we can trust Him (and His brand), we remember the truths & promises written in His Word, and we can have Faith that if He did for Daniel, David, Moses, & others - surely He can do it for us.
Humility is needed for Faith to grow and remain. Scripture says that if my people, who are called, would HUMBLE themselves and pray. In order for our prayers to create change they have to be coupled with Faith, but in order to have Faith we have to be humble. Why? Because how can a “know it ALL” have room for KNOWING God. If we are so full of our own wisdom, knowledge & understanding, how will we have room for what God wants to do and say. And if we don’t have room for what God wants to do then we aren’t even challenged to increase or maintain our faith.
We all know at least one “know it all” (or maybe we are “the know it all”). A “know it all” is a person who thinks that they know everything about everything. It’s hard to have a conversation with these types of folks because they do most of the talking and when you try to add to the conversation they dismiss your input or minimize its importance as if it’s trivial… You know this person don’t you? This type of person is prideful and it’s hard to teach them new things, and it may be difficult for them to adapt to change.
Faith requires that we think differently. Because faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith in itself is a trusting, a knowing, a commitment, and a belief in something that your physical mind can’t conceive and in order to take a hold of faith you have to empty yourself of all your own wisdom and knowledge, and be willing to seek the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that comes from God.
It’s all about submission which is a whole nother blog.
I hope that this along with the Faith videos have been helpful for thinking about the “how to faith” there is so much more I want to share but just chew on this for a little and think about how you can implement the points above in your week. Do you need to read more, listen more, collect memory versus, or find ways to change the ways you think?
Love ya lots!
Be blessed,
Shekinah
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